All posts tagged MGM

Massachusetts gambling regulators said Tuesday that three companies seeking two resort-casino licenses in the state, including a coveted license for a casino outside Boston, all filed huge, final applications before a year-end deadline.

Casino operators Mohegan Sun, Wynn Resorts and MGM Resorts International have all survived–thus far—a bruising contest set by a 2011 law paving the way for casinos. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission currently expects to award a license for eastern Massachusetts and western Massachusetts by May, the regulator said in a blog post.

The commission’s 236-page application ballooned to gigantic proportions by the time the casino operators turned it around. MGM on Monday filed more than 7,000 pages that weighed 400 pounds, for example. Mohegan said Tuesday its just-filed application includes 16,034 pages of documents, and that it delivered two copies in 15 boxes.

On Friday, Wynn delivered the commission the most reading: it submitted more than 18,000 pages in “leather-covered, gold-embossed notebooks and flash drives,” a spokesman said.

The founder of political news site Politico, Robert Allbritton, is buying Capital New York, WSJ reports, noting his plans to quadruple the relatively tiny web site’s staff and add more content around city and state politics and media. The deal gives Allbritton the chance to test his model for free, ad-supported news content and premium subscription products in New York, after establishing Politico as a profitable, and formidable voice in Washington D.C. media over the last six years, the story notes. The timing is right for Allbritton, who little over a month ago agreed to sell eight of his TV stations for around $1 billion and plans to use the proceeds to invest in Politico and other media.

MGM TURNAROUND:

New York Times considers an apparent turnaround effort at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, following a long run of financial turmoil. The story notes that MGM’s lightly-traded stock has risen 50% since April and tripled its quarterly revenue, and it has had big movie and TV projects such as “The Hobbit” and “The Vikings.” Still, many in Hollywood view MGM as little more than a giant movie library with a familiar story of being swapped between impatient financial owners. The story notes that filmed entertainment as an investment has enjoyed a revival in recent years, following the demise of the DVD business, because of new revenue opportunities overseas and the potential for online licensing deals with the likes of Netflix.